Anarchy, Discontent Plague Second Life

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Linden Labs may soon be delivering better clouds to Second Life, yet there are clouds of another kind on the horizon for the much hyped service.

An update to Second Life’s client server will coincide with a 6 hour outage from 6am-12 noon PST Wednesday and Second Life users are not happy. According to a post at Gamer.Blorge Second Life entrepreneurs are particularly unhappy with the downtime, after all, if you’re trying to make a living from Second Life this downtime affects the bottom line.

Proving that Second Life is indeed a reincarnation of the Wild West, the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) was literally blown off the face of Second Life Tuesday by “miscreants” according to The Sydney Morning Herald. ABC Island featured a number of venues where visitors could listen and dance to music, attend talks and watch videos of selected ABC programs before it was reduced to something more like Hiroshima circa 1945.

Sadly, this type of attack is not new. The self styled Second Life Liberation Army have previously attacked Reebok and American Apparel stores in Second Life and stormed the stage at the January 2007 meeting of the World Economic Forum in Second Life.

The then there is the various police investigations in a number of countries. The FBI recently started investigating Second Life for illegal online gambling. Police in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands are investigating whether virtual rape in Second Life constitutes an offense, and German Police are investigating pedophilia on a service where virtual “age play” and bestiality are widespread.

Is a perfect storm brewing, virtual or otherwise? I guess there is always Entropia Universe.